The provision of prostheses for various types of joints in the human body and particularly for finger joints is not a new art but it is one in which the level of interest has increased greatly in the last few years. A very large number of such prostheses have been designed and offered to the medical profession and thousands thereof have been utilized for replacing patients' joints.
Throughout this work, however, there has been insofar as I am aware, a constant unsolved problem of providing means by which said prostheses could be held, firmly manipulated but easily released during an implant procedure. When it is remembered that many such prostheses, particularly those going into the small joints of a finger are often not more than 1 to 11/2 inches long so that each component thereof is approximately 5/8-3/4 inch long, that each half must be separately manipulated to position same into the appropriate bone adjacent such joint, that the working space between the adjacent ends of the bones is seldom more than 1/2-3/4 inch, and that the fingers of the acting surgeon are usually at least 1/2 inch wide, it will be recognized that it is an extremely difficult procedure for the surgeon to hold a component of such prosthesis in his fingers, appropriately insert same into the space between the adjacent ends of the bone and then push the prosthesis into a hole drilled into the bone. The surgeon's fingers in the small space between the bone ends are often simply so large as to obscure the surgeon's view of the working zone, particularly his view of the end of the bone into which the prosthesis is to be inserted, and a great deal of difficulty and inconvenience has thereby been generated.
The problem has been well recognized for a considerable period of time but insofar as I am aware, no solution has been offered therefor.
Accordingly, the objects of the present invention include:
1. To provide a relatively simple tool which will conveniently receive a portion of a prosthesis for a finger joint implant, control same for appropriate insertion thereof into the necessary bone and then be capable of ready removal from the implant by a sufficiently easy motion as not to disturb the position of the implant in the bone.
2. To provide a tool, as aforesaid, which will have no moving parts.
3. To provide a tool, as aforesaid, which can be readily molded from plastics material.
4. To provide a tool, as aforesaid, which will be of sufficient structural simplicity that its mode of operation will be obvious.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will become apparent to persons skilled in this art upon reading the following specification and inspection of the accompanying drawings.